


practice makes perfect

by someone96745



Category: 2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部 | 2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu (Anime)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Written after episode 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28891101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/someone96745/pseuds/someone96745
Summary: In which Haijima and Kuroba decide to fake-date. For volleyball.
Relationships: Haijima Kimichika/Kuroba Yuni
Comments: 28
Kudos: 104





	practice makes perfect

**Author's Note:**

> i watched the first two episodes wondering where all the other teammates in the key visual were before realizing that they probably just went to high school. idk if this is common knowledge that i missed somehow or maybe i'm just completely wrong?? idk i haven't read the source material. anyways this fanfic operates on that assumption so hopefully that isn't confusing!  
> 
> 
> this is based off of episode 5 of one of the mini anime (the one where they introduce the characters and stuff), which u can watch on the twitter account! (they have a bunch of other mini anime episodes, altho i'm not sure if there r any english translations floating around anywhere.) i'm simplifying it a lot but basically haijima and kuroba r learning about their teammates and kuroba mentions that he'd feel more motivated if he had a girlfriend cheering him on  
> 
> 
> this fanfic takes place after the mini episode, so in high school + also a while after ep 2. for this story i'm assuming kuroba and haijima have made up but still haven't gotten that close again, and that kuroba's still struggling w/ nerves during games. probably won't fit on the timeline anywhere once more episodes come out but that's the curse of writing fanfic early ig lol

Despite playing volleyball through middle school, Yuni only plays his first practice match once he gets to high school. It goes about as well as one would expect, after his performance in last year’s tournament. He blames it on being unused to his new teammates, on being surrounded solely by competitive people, and even on standing in a new court, but he ultimately just flubbed the match. 

“You still have nerve problems,” Haijima notes as they walk home.

Yuni sighs and wipes the sweat from his forehead. “I know.”

“You should try getting a girlfriend,” Haijima says. 

“What?” Yuni snaps his head up to look incredulously at Haijima. “Where did that come from? I thought we were talking about volleyball!” 

“We are,” Haijima says. “It was your idea. You said that it’d help you in volleyball if you had a girlfriend cheering you on.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Yuni says, and wrings his hands. “It’s not like I’d have the time to find a girlfriend, since I’m always practicing volleyball with you.” 

“It can’t be _that_ hard.”

Yuni snorts and elbows him. “I’d like to see you try, Haijima. It’s not like you’ve—” He cuts himself off and frowns. “Or did you?” He tries to sound nonchalant and nudges Haijima in the shoulder. “Leave any girlfriends behind in Tokyo?” 

“Of course not,” Haijima says. Yuni tries not to look relieved. 

Blushing victoriously, he says, “Well, if _you_ couldn’t get one, I don’t know why you think I’d be able to.” 

Haijima scoffs. “You actually want a girlfriend, for one.” 

Yuni sneaks a glance at him. “So you don’t? Why not?” 

Haijima shrugs noncommittally. “It’s not like having a girlfriend would help _me_ in volleyball.” 

“Oh,” Yuni says, a little disappointed. “Figures,” he says, and then wonders what he was hoping Haijima would answer instead. He changes the topic. “In the first place, if I did get a girlfriend just to help me in volleyball, wouldn’t you feel bad for her?” 

“Not particularly.” 

Yuni laughs and pats Haijima on the back. “Maybe it’s a good thing you don’t want a girlfriend, then.” He sighs. “And we’re back at square one. I guess I just have to practice more.” 

Haijima keeps walking, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Then, after a lengthy pause, he says, “I could be your girlfriend.” 

Yuni almost trips over his feet turning around to look at Haijima. “Sorry, what?” 

“If you don’t want to find one, I could be your girlfriend,” Haijima says. He doesn’t look at Yuni as he says this, but he doesn’t _sound_ flustered, which is unfair. 

Yuni looks away and tries to hide his blushing by pretending he needs to sneeze and covering his face with his arm. “I’m pretty sure you can’t, Haijima,” he mumbles. 

Haijima looks over at Yuni, who quickly stuffs his hands into his pockets and hopes his blush faded. Haijima frowns slightly. “All I have to do is cheer you on. It can’t be that hard.” 

“It’s not _just_ that,” Yuni insists. 

“Then what?” 

“There’s a lot of stuff,” Yuni says. “Like going on dates, holding hands, hugging…” He wrenches his gaze away from Haijima and stares at a fence instead. “...and, you know, kissing?” 

Haijima tsks. “I could do that.” 

Yuni’s eyes dart back to look at him. “We’d definitely get made fun of,” he says, even as he feels flattered and a little bit giddy that Haijima would even be willing to kiss him. 

“Then we can do it in secret,” Haijima says. 

Yuni blushes, trying to think about it logically. The chances of it helping his stage fright are spotty at best, but there’s no harm if it doesn’t work. Going on dates could be fun, and they used to hold hands and hug as children. He wouldn’t be opposed to kissing Haijima, either. 

And it’s for volleyball, after all. 

“Okay,” Yuni agrees, and then, because he doesn’t want to seem too eager, he shrugs and says, “Why not?” 

* * *

They go on their first “date” after volleyball practice. Since they’re fake-dating in secret, they have to pretend that they’re dating while pretending that they’re not dating. It makes Yuni’s head spin to think about it, so he just follows Haijima’s lead. 

Haijima takes him to a restaurant where they exclusively order salad, which doesn’t strike Yuni as particularly romantic, but he supposes that it’s more important to take care of their health. As they eat in awkward silence, Yuni wonders how this is any different from hanging out as friends, but then he remembers that they hardly even hang out anymore outside of volleyball. He frowns at the table. 

It’s hard to say at first what part of this constitutes a date, secret or fake or otherwise, but Haijima nudges his shoulder after they order their food, and they hold hands under the table in silence for the few short minutes before their order is ready. 

Haijima pays for both of them, despite Yuni’s protests, before saying that Yuni will be paying next time. He walks home with him, too, instead of straying ahead or staying out late, and they pass by Yori out in the streets. 

Like usual, Yori scowls at them, and Haijima glares back, but Yuni, who has long given up on getting the two of them to get along, just pulls Haijima along by the hand—he thinks that holding hands seems natural, in these circumstances—and picks up the pace. Haijima is unnaturally tense, but he eventually relaxes and squeezes Yuni’s hand back, even as he mutters, “I wasn’t going to do anything.” 

They hold hands for almost a full minute before Yuni thinks he sees a shadow move and hastily lets go. 

* * *

It becomes a new ritual of theirs to go on fake dates after volleyball practice, and the dates grow to feel increasingly more natural. Yuni is glad to talk about his time in Fukui while Haijima was away, pointing out the sites Haijima forgot and teasing him about the regional words he doesn’t remember. Meanwhile, he also gets Haijima to talk about things other than volleyball sometimes, like the people he knew in Tokyo who were “just acquaintances,” and the sights in Tokyo that he “got used to quickly.” 

Their conversations still revolve mainly around volleyball, since Haijima revolves mainly around volleyball, but Yuni figures that maybe it’s better this way, so that they sound like two normal guy friends that are just in the same club and not like two guy friends that are pretend-dating as a scheme to help with Yuni’s performance anxiety. 

Holding hands also becomes a new habit. Sometimes Yuni is even the one to reach out and link their hands, although he’s also the one to hastily let go if he even suspects that someone might be able to see them, which Haijima never fails to comment on. 

* * *

Spending so much time together, it’s easy to get swept up in Haijima’s enthusiasm for volleyball, and they often find themselves alone at the gym when they come early for weekend practice. 

“I think we’re ready for the next step,” Haijima says. 

Yuni hits his head on his locker. “What?” he asks, blushing. 

“Hugging,” Haijima clarifies. 

“Oh, that’s what you meant,” Yuni says, and absentmindedly wonders if they’re ever going to try kissing. Haijima said that he “could” do it, not that he “would.” He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested, although he still can’t imagine how kissing would translate into better volleyball skills. 

“Are you not?” Haijima asks, and Yuni realizes he spaced out. 

“No, I’m ready,” Yuni insists. 

Haijima nods, scanning Yuni up and down. “Hold your arms out.” 

Yuni gulps and lifts his arms a little before shaking his head rapidly. “Not here,” he says. “What if one of our team members walks in on us?” 

Haijima stares at him. “You’re scared of them seeing us hugging?” 

Yuni nods, biting his lip, and drags him by the hand to the gym storage room. He shuts the door behind them and lets go of Haijima’s hand. “Do you have the key?” 

Haijima wordlessly hands him the key ring. 

Yuni fiddles with the key ring and examines the doorknob. “Uh, where does the key go?” 

“It doesn’t lock from the inside,” Haijima says, and Yuni turns around to see Haijima trying not to laugh at him. 

“Why’d you give me the keys, then?” Yuni mutters, ducking to hide his blush. 

He tosses the keys back to Haijima, who smirks. “No reason. Now hold your arms out.” 

Yuni obeys, and Haijima studies him awkwardly. He steps forward a little, rests his hand on Yuni’s left shoulder, and tilts his head a little in concentration, before letting go and stepping back. He moves his arms at his sides, like he’s trying to visualize the hug, and steps forward again before backtracking. 

“You don’t have to think about it so much,” Yuni says, finally deciding to take pity on him. “How about I hug you first and you hug me back?” 

“...Go ahead,” Haijima says, half embarrassed and half relieved. 

Yuni steps closer and hugs him gently, resting his chin on Haijima’s left shoulder. Haijima tenses up a little at first, but he breathes out and slowly frees his arms to wrap his arms back around Yuni. 

It’s not like their heights differ by _that_ much, but he couldn’t bury his face in Haijima’s shoulder like this when they were kids. He couldn’t hug him for this long, either. Yuni closes his eyes and hugs a little tighter, and Haijima relaxes and turns his head in so that his breath ghosts Yuni’s ear. 

Yuni smiles slightly into Haijima’s shoulder, realizing for the first time just how much he’s missed him. Even though they’ve been reunited, managed to reconnect, and even recovered from last year’s fiasco, they still haven’t regained the easy companionship they had before. “I missed this,” he mumbles.

“I told you I could do it,” Haijima says, letting go. His hands hover awkwardly at Yuni’s waist before falling to his sides. “What did you think?”

Yuni grins at him. “I think practice makes perfect.” 

* * *

They get another practice match, but Yuni’s nerves still haven’t disappeared. He reminds himself that it’s not a real match, it’s just practice, but this practice match is even more nerve-wracking than the previous one. 

He starts in the middle in the back row, so he has plenty of time to get his head back in the game before he has to serve. He doesn’t even mess up at first—he receives the volleyball successfully, even gets a spike over, but somehow, he only gets more nervous with every rotation. 

He reaches the back right corner of the court. The other team rolls the ball under the net, and Haijima stops it with his foot and picks it up. Their eyes meet as Haijima tosses it over for him to serve, and Yuni suddenly realizes why he’s so nervous. 

This match doesn’t matter the way a real match does, because it doesn’t decide how far they can go, who they can play next, or whether they’ll be going home with crushed spirits. But it matters to them, because it’s the first match they’ve played since they started fake dating. 

He steps behind the service line. 

If they lose and Haijima decides that the fake dating isn’t helping, will they give up their fake relationship? He doesn’t want to give it up. He doesn’t want to stop spending time together. He doesn’t want volleyball club to be the only time they meet. 

He has to win this match. 

He’s learned from last time. He memorized the steps so that his brain can fill in what his instinct forgets. He knows that he steps forward with his left foot and he knows how many steps to take before serving. But when he swings for the ball, he messes up his timing. 

The ball flies straight into the net. 

“Don’t worry about it!” one of his teammates calls out, already walking over to pick up the ball and pass it to the other team, but Yuni barely notices him. His eyes automatically dart to Haijima. 

Instead of avoiding his gaze, Haijima glances back. He mouths something unintelligible and nods before forcing a smile. He looks painfully awkward, but Yuni can tell that he’s trying _,_ that the awkwardness is from lack of practice rather than restrained anger, and he has to stifle a laugh before he grins back. Haijima’s eyes widen a little and his smile relaxes into something more natural before he turns his attention back across the net. 

With that, he unwinds. Haijima _won’t_ be angry at him, even if he messes up. They’ve come back from losing the real tournament last year, so they can come back from losing this, too. Even if they do lose, and Haijima suggests quitting the fake dating, it doesn’t mean they have to quit everything else, too. 

Playing becomes easier. He receives more balls and gets them up in the air for Haijima to set, and he scores more spikes. He even manages to receive a jump serve, and his next serve goes over the net. 

Even failing isn’t so scary anymore. When he receives a ball in a way that’s hard for his teammates to follow up on, or even when he completely misses a ball or makes a spike out of bounds, Haijima will look for him to try and silently cheer him up. 

When he said that he thought having a girlfriend would help him with volleyball, he was assuming that it’d be because he’d be motivated by trying to show off to her. Admittedly, that—showing off for Haijima—was what he did in their middle school matches, but it’s different now. He doesn’t need to show off anymore, because he finally knows that Haijima won’t scorn him if he falls. 

His gaze drifts to Haijima, who moved to the center front position, and he smiles. Even if he’s a lot more prickly now, he still cares _somewhere,_ really deep inside. Things would have been so much easier if he only realized sooner, he thinks, and then he gets hit by a volleyball in the knee. 

“You alright?” their captain asks. Yuni nods mutely. 

Haijima turns around to find Yuni already looking at him, zoning out. It’s Haijima’s turn to cover up a laugh, and he half-smirks at Yuni, tilting his head back smugly. Yuni rolls his eyes back at him, blushing a little, and picks up the volleyball to send it rolling back under the net. 

* * *

“Are you ready for the next step?” Haijima asks before weekend practice. 

Yuni perks up, blushing. “What?” 

“...Kissing,” Haijima says. Unlike everything else, this is enough to finally make him blush. It’s kind of cute. 

Yuni nods eagerly. “Yeah.” He had honestly been a little worried that—no, he had been _wondering_ if they were going to skip that part, since he already doing better in practice matches. But it looks like Haijima was thinking about it, too.

Haijima averts his eyes, still blushing slightly. “I think you should start this, too.” 

Yuni gulps. “Okay,” he says. “Um, close your eyes.” 

Haijima does. 

Yuni leans over to awkwardly cup Haijima’s face, like he thinks he’s supposed to. His eyes drift down to Haijima’s lips, and he slowly starts to lean in. Then he pauses. 

What if they’re not thinking of the same thing? “Kissing” isn’t _always_ on the lips, is it? What if Haijima’s expecting him to kiss him on the cheek, but he kisses him on the lips, instead? Would that gross him out? 

This would be easier if Haijima could have just initiated it, Yuni thinks, and leans back. Haijima fidgets a little, like he’s getting impatient.

Taking a deep breath, Yuni stands up on his tip-toes and kisses Haijima on the forehead before pulling away. Haijima opens his eyes, and Yuni squirms under the attention, knowing he must be blushing horribly. 

Haijima slowly reaches up to touch his forehead where Yuni kissed him. He smiles, blushing a little, before smirking. “Is that it?” 

“...Can I?” Yuni asks. His eyes dart to Haijima’s lips. 

Haijima smiles smugly. “I said I could do it,” he reminds him. 

“Okay,” Yuni whispers. Haijima’s eyes flutter closed, and Yuni grips Haijima by the shoulders. He leans in, closing his own eyes, and then he lets go again. 

Haijima opens his eyes. “What is it this time?” 

“Have you had your first kiss before?” Yuni asks. 

“No,” Haijima says. “You?” 

“Nope,” Yuni admits. 

“Is there a problem?” Haijima asks. 

“I mean, _I_ wouldn’t mind having my first kiss with you,” Yuni says, “but I don’t want you to kiss me because you feel like you have to or because you think I won’t get better at volleyball if you don’t. I don’t want to take your first kiss because of volleyball.” 

“Then don’t,” Haijima says. He grips onto Yuni’s sleeve. “I _want_ you to kiss me.” 

“Oh,” Yuni whispers. “Okay.” He gulps. “Well, then, close your eyes.” 

Haijima closes his eyes. Yuni cradles his face again and swallows. He breathes in and leans over. Their noses bump. “Sorry,” Yuni whispers, and tilts his head. He leans in again, and this time, finally, their lips connect. 

He pulls back a few seconds later, blushing. 

Haijima blinks his eyes open. 

“What did you think?” Yuni asks. 

Haijima smirks. “Well, someone once told me that ‘practice makes perfect.’” 

Yuni leans in again. At this point, he doesn’t care how much this helps him with volleyball. He’s just glad to spend more time with Haijima.

He doesn’t even notice when the door opens behind them. Haijima leans back and looks away, and Yuni follows his gaze to see one of their teammates. Yuni realizes now that in his... excitement to kiss Haijima, he didn’t even remember to drag him into the gym storage closet like usual. 

Yuni hastily separates from Haijima, blushing, and resists the urge to hide. Their teammate doesn’t _look_ mad, though. He just grins. “So you _do_ think about things other than volleyball, Haijima,” he comments, and laughs. “I thought you two were coming early to practice, but if you were just coming here to make out, I guess I don’t have to worry about slacking off too much.” 

Haijima scowls. “We’re not slacking off,” he says, but doesn’t elaborate. 

Yuni wonders if he should correct his teammate’s assumption—today was technically the only day they’ve actually “made out”—but explaining sounds like a headache. 

“I didn’t say you were,” the teammate says, waving a hand. “I’ll hurry up and go to the gym soon, so feel free to go back to whatever you were doing.” 

He and Haijima exchange embarrassed glances and silently agree to go straight to practice. 

* * *

It’s difficult to describe how both bewildering and endearing it is for Haijima to kiss him in between describing volleyball plays or criticizing his serving form. Kissing becomes a part of their weekend routine before practice, and they start going to Yuni’s house after their “dates.” 

“Can I ask you something?” Haijima asks. He’s doing math homework on Yuni’s bed. 

Yuni looks up from where he’s leaning on Haijima’s shoulder and playing with his phone. “Go ahead,” he says, curious. Haijima is usually more straightforward. 

Haijima sets down his pencil on his homework. He hesitates and grits his teeth before saying, “Why did you stop calling me Chika?” 

Yuni stops leaning on Haijima and shifts to sit on his legs, facing him properly. “I don’t know,” he says. “It was embarrassing.” 

“Everything is embarrassing to you,” Haijima says. “You always panic when you think someone might see us holding hands, and you don’t even want to hug without hiding in the closet. Are you really that scared?” 

“It’s not like that,” Yuni protests, flushing. “It was just embarrassing, to call you by a nickname while you were calling me by my last name. I felt like I was just chasing after you.” 

“Oh.” Haijima grimaces before saying, “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s not like I’m blaming you,” Yuni says, and flicks him gently in the forehead. “Why bring it up now?” 

“No reason,” Haijima says. 

So even Haijima can be transparent sometimes, he muses. It’s kind of adorable. Yuni grins at him and pulls him in for another hug. “If you say so, Chika.” 

* * *

Yuni plays at their next tournament with confidence. Or, at least, he does until when he slips up and instinctively searches for Kimichika, Kimichika doesn’t look back at him. 

Yuni freezes up before shaking his head. He’s probably just trying to focus, he reasons. In the first place, it’s kind of ridiculous to expect him to bother spending the time to try and console Yuni every single time he slips up. 

The other team serves. Yuni gets the ball up into the air a stretch away from where he wanted it, but one of his teammates scrambles to reach it in time and Kimichika gets it over the net. 

(It’s not like the silent on-court communication was the _only_ thing they did. There was a point to the other time they spent together. They’re better teammates now. He knows Kimichika won’t get angry at him for slipping up.)

It becomes Yuni’s turn to serve. He steps back. Forward. 1, 2, 3. He strikes the ball. It hits the top of the net and wobbles precariously at the top before falling into the other team’s side of the court. An opposing player dives for it and misses. 

(But this is a tournament. It’s different. A loss here means that they won’t be able to stand on the court until the next season. Maybe Kimichika’s upset with him.) 

Another serve. He steps back. Runs into it. Missteps. The volleyball doesn’t even reach the net. It just bounces pitifully on his side of the court, not even two meters away from where Yuni stands. 

Kimichika picks up the volleyball without looking at Yuni and silently rolls it under the net. Maybe he _is_ angry. 

The next time Kimichika sets to him, Yuni spikes the ball into the net. 

Their coach calls a timeout.

“Sorry,” Yuni mutters. 

“Yuni,” Kimichika says. “Why are you still nervous?” 

Yuni shrugs helplessly. “It’s just different from the practice matches, that’s all.” 

Kimichika purses his lips. “But you already knew that.” 

“I know, I know.” He blushes and averts his eyes. “It’s just throwing me off a little, since, well…” He starts mumbling. “...you aren’t looking at me anymore.” 

Kimichika stares at him impassively before his eyes widen. “I didn’t realize,” he says. “I was concentrating on the game.” 

Yuni’s shoulders slump in relief. “So you do get nervous a little,” he comments, starting to grin. 

“What?” Kimichika snaps, and scowls. “That hardly counts.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Yuni says smugly. “Now that I know this, I think I’ll be fine the entire game.” 

Kimichika scrutinizes him. “You’d better be.” 

Their coach coughs, bemused. “Are you ready to keep playing?” 

They lose the game and win the match.

* * *

Itoko only knocks on the door once before opening it, which is unfortunately not enough time for Yuni and Kimichika to stop kissing over their math homework. 

“Hey, Yuni, your mom wants you to come down for dinn—” She blinks. “Wait. Wait, Yuni, you didn’t tell me that you and—” 

“Not so loud!” Yuni hisses. 

Itoko nods, mimes shutting up, and closes the door behind her. She stage-whispers, “I didn’t know you two were dating. Why didn’t you tell me, Yuni? We’re cousins!” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Yuni whispers back. 

Kimichika adjusts his glasses and starts to gather his things into his backpack. “I’m leaving now,” he says, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“You can stay for dinner,” Yuni and Itoko say at the same time. Itoko sticks her tongue out at him, and Yuni frowns back. Kimichika sets his backpack down. 

“Don’t tell anyone,” Yuni tells Itoko.

“I won’t,” Itoko says, sighing. “What kind of person do you think I am?” 

“You’d better not,” Yuni threatens, and turns around. “Chika, can I tell her about us?” 

“She’s _your_ cousin,” Kimichika says with a shrug. “I’m going to see if your parents need help with dinner.” 

Kimichika leaves, gently shutting the door behind him, and Yuni, abandoned, turns to face Itoko. He tries to word it as simply as possible. “We’re doing it for volleyball,” he explains. 

Itoko blinks. “You’re what?” 

“We’re pretending to date in order to help with my stage fright in official volleyball matches,” Yuni elaborates. 

“Yeah, you lost me,” Itoko says. “Why is dating supposed to help you with volleyball?” 

“Fake dating,” Yuni corrects, “and it helps, because, well…” He looks away. The original idea was that having a girlfriend would motivate him more, but he wanted to impress Chika even before they started “dating.” The secret glances on court help his nerves, but it’s not like they need to kiss beforehand to do that. “Uh, it makes us better teammates?” 

“Wait,” Itoko interjects, “are you fake-dating your _entire_ volleyball team?” 

“What?” Yuni says. “No, only Chika.” 

“Okay,” Itoko says slowly, “and what do you do as part of your ‘fake’ dating?” 

“Well, we go on dates, and we hug and hold hands sometimes, and, uh, you know.” He glances longingly at the door, embarrassed. 

“And you kiss,” Itoko finishes for him. She sighs and places her hands on her hips. “You know, you don’t have to make stuff up. I’m not homophobic or anything. I like girls, too.” 

“But you had a boyfriend.” 

“I’m bisexual. You can like multiple genders, you know?” Itoko says. “How do you not know this? You literally have a boyfriend.” 

“No, I don’t,” Yuni says. “I wasn’t lying about the fake dating thing.” 

Itoko squints at him before her eyes widen. “Oh, wow, you weren’t,” she says. “Wow. You two are incredibly stupid.” 

“Thanks,” Yuni mutters. 

“Okay, quick question,” Itoko says. “If you could, would you want to date him for real?” 

“Well, yeah,” Yuni says, blushing and crossing his arms. As it stands, they’ll probably only “date” as long as they’re in the same volleyball team, which means they’ll stop if they go to different colleges or if Yuni quits volleyball. So of course he wants to date him for real. 

“Wow, no hesitation. Why don’t you, then?” 

“It’s not that easy,” Yuni protests. 

Itoko sighs into her hands. “Whatever. It’s your loss.”

* * *

Even though Kimichika comes over to their house so often, he rarely stays for dinner, so Yuni’s parents hardly ever get to talk to him. Granted, it’s rare for Itoko and her parents to come for dinner, too, but they seem amused enough to tolerate talking less in favor of watching Yuni’s parents pester Kimichika. 

Kimichika is much more courteous when talking to Yuni’s parents. He never answers with more than one sentence, and he responds with only one word when he can, but he doesn’t mix in any insults. They ask how he’s getting along with Yuni, and Yuni has to turn away to stop from blushing when Kimichika answers, “Good,” and their legs touch gently under the table. 

He finds himself staring at him, even after his parents finish pestering him and move on to small talk with his aunt and uncle, and wonders if maybe he _does_ like him romantically. He at least had the self-awareness to recognize that he blushed around him a lot, but he had chalked that up to excitement over their reunion.

“Is there something on my face?” Chika asks, and Yuni blushes and shakes his head. Itoko coughs out loud and kicks him gently in the shin under the table. He kicks her back. No one notices.

After dinner, Yuni waves goodbye to Kimichika before holing himself up in his room. He lies in bed with his phone and spends the next hour or so taking online quizzes and Googling things like “how do i know if i have a crush on my best friend?” and “how do i know if i like guys?” 

Finally, he closes Google and texts Itoko. 

* * *

**Yuni (8:47 PM):** help i think i have a crush on chika

**Itoko (8:49 PM):** _wait_

**Itoko (8:49 PM):** _srsly???_

**Itoko (8:49 PM):** _u just noticed????_

**Yuni (8:50 PM):** i thought i was straight

**Itoko (8:50 PM):** _ur kidding_

**Yuni (8:50 PM):** help

**Yuni (8:50 PM):** what am i supposed to do

**Itoko (8:51 PM):** _literally_

**Itoko (8:51 PM):** _just_

**Itoko (8:51 PM):** _talk to him_

**Yuni (8:51 PM):** how

**Itoko (8:53 PM):** _why would i know_

* * *

After realizing he actually has a crush, it becomes hard to focus on anything else. Even what he thought he got used to makes him blush now. The next time Kimichika smiles at him in during practice, he blushes, zones out, and takes a volleyball to the face. 

At the end of practice, the captain asks him if he’s feeling feverish, which he fervently denies before pulling Kimichika out of the gymnasium. 

“Wanna go on a walk?” Yuni asks. 

“We are,” Kimichika says flatly. 

Yuni blushes. “I mean, do you want to go sight-seeing or something?” 

“Sure,” Kimichika says. “I have homework, though, so make it quick.” 

“Mm-hmm,” Yuni says. He walks a little ahead of Chika, and takes him to a small grass clearing. 

“Why here?” Chika asks. 

Yuni takes a deep breath and exhales. He tries to rearrange his thoughts. This is just like volleyball, he tells himself. There are steps. First, look him in the eyes. Second, confess. 

“I… thought this would be a nice place to do homework.” 

Kimichika blinks. “...Right. Okay, then.” He sits down on a flat rock and unzips his backpack. Yuni stares at him, a little dumbfounded, before rushing to get out his homework, too. 

Yuni absentmindedly flips through his math workbook and wonders how he can still salvage this. Confessing is supposed to be special, right?

“You’re spacing out,” Kimichika says. 

“Huh?” Yuni says. “Oh, um, yeah! This problem was just confusing me!” 

“Show me.” 

Yuni passes him the workbook, and Kimichika scans the page and checks his own homework. 

“We didn’t go over this in class yet,” Kimichika says. 

“Oh,” Yuni says. Their hands brush as Kimichika hands him back his workbook, and Yuni grasps his hand before he can move away. 

Kimichika looks at him expectantly.

“I…” Yuni blushes. “I think I like you!” 

Kimichika snorts. “You’re welcome,” he says, “but you should probably just start writing down the homework pages during class.” 

“Huh? No, I mean, I like you romantically.” 

“Well, I’d hope so,” Kimichika says, and leans forward to kiss him. “I like you, too.” 

Yuni blushes. “No, as in, I want to real-date you.” 

Kimichika stares at him. 

Yuni flushes and backtracks. “But only if you want to?” 

“So we weren’t already?” Kimichika asks. 

“Huh?” Yuni blanks out. “We were just fake-dating in secret to help me with volleyball, right?”

“But then you said you didn’t want to take my first kiss because of volleyball,” Kimichika says. “And then we kissed. A lot.” 

Yuni blinks rapidly. “Wait,” he says. “We’re dating?” 

“I thought so, at least,” Kimichika says. 

Yuni blushes and buries his face in his hands. “I didn’t notice,” he says mournfully. “Itoko _told_ me I was stupid.” 

“She was right,” Kimichika says. 

Yuni groans. “I had a boyfriend all this time and I never noticed.” 

Kimichika kisses him on the forehead. “At least you’re better at volleyball now.” 


End file.
